Steven Lake, featured in today’s IndieView, is a prolific author. More importantly he’s a good writer, and he loves writing. There’s nothing more pleasurable, from a reader’s point of view, than finding a new author, whose writing you love, and finding out they’ve written a whole pile of books.
Steven writes full-time. Lots of good advice here for new writers. Continue reading
Tom Lichtenberg, our Indie author being interviewed today, has a great take on what it is to be “Indie”. He’s written a LOT of books. The fun he has, shows in his writing. I especially liked his comment on marketing,
“I am totally winging it. I have no idea what I’m doing.” Continue reading
I’m happy to introduce you to Maria Savva, author of, “Second Chances”.
What is the book about?
‘Second Chances’ is a very modern novel about life and relationships. Continue reading
For the first IndieView I’m happy to introduce you to Wanda Shapiro, author of, Sometimes That Happens With Chicken.
About the book:
What is the book about?
Sometimes That Happens With Chicken is a literary novel with a large cast of characters whose lives become inextricably intertwined due to the life choices of a complete stranger. It’s set in the Village in New York City with historical threads reaching from Texas to Saudi Arabia. Continue reading
The playing field of publishing has tilted, but it hasn’t leveled by any means. The vast majority of books sold still involve the cutting down of a tree and the passing through of some very tiny gates. But it is has tilted, and if you step back, and make a little director’s square with your hands, you’ll see that it is skewed in favor of those who understand the digital world.
There is no doubt that some of the Big Six (BS) will alter course to swing their mammoth tankers towards the unchartered waters of the social consumer. Others will order the champagne to flow and tell the orchestra on the poop deck to play louder. What shape the industry will take is anybody’s guess, but if you’re looking for direction, Mike Shatzkin’s blog is a good place to go. He has a very good piece with Random House CEO, on transitioning from B2B to B2C.
But this post isn’t about the calamity,or not, that BS are facing. Rather it hopes to delve into something of a different nature. An insecure, abused orphan, lacking in confidence, and reaching its adolescent years suffering from an identity crisis; Self Publishing.
It’s a well-known fact that the label, self publishing, carries with it a stigma. The stigma that once you’ve self-published you’re finished as a writer. A stigma born of the past, and carefully nurtured by those with a vested interest in the present. The BIG argument from the BS train is that the slush pile is being put on-line. For a near hysterical diatribe from an extremely arrogant and myopic viewpoint, from a lady who’s clearly suffering her own identity crisis (“I’m the man”) go here, feel free to flame comment. Guess what, they’re right. The slush pile is being put on-line. So what. I can reject something just as quick as you can, however unlike you, I don’t think that I am the sole arbiter of taste, nor do I believe that I am unique.
We’re reliably informed by many Agent blogs that the vast majority of “real books” by “real authors” (i.e. pure BS), never earn out their advances and end up being returned. OK, so an agent chose those books and BS editors squabbled over them, the marketers marketed and the sales people sold; and then the public didn’t buy them. I can do that :-).
There is a lot of crap out there from both Trad and Indie publishing. Both parties are aware of this and neither has a solution. BS say the slush is going on-line, Self Publishers (SP) are saying we need to change our name from SP to Indie Publishers (IP) to help distinguish between good Indie and bad Indie. Why? Because self publishing has that stigma and it isn’t bleeding palms. How do you change the perception that something published by an individual is at least the equal of something published by a corporation. For a quick and sad (in my opinion) look at how decisions are made about books have a read over here.
You don’t. The market will decide. What has changed is that the market is now a lot bigger and this is a good thing.
The good stuff will float to the top. Amazon‘s way of doing this is via reviews – user driven reviews. Goodreads and LibraryThing are two other sites where readers write reviews on books. And it works. Yes there are the “release reviews” which are impossible to avoid or to police, (hey publishers print “his latest bestseller” on the front of books which haven’t been released yet), but if the author hasn’t done their work in marketing then that’s all the reviews that author is going to get.
If the author has done their work and spread the message that their new book is available, then some people will sample, some will buy, and the reviews will add up. Some will be mean-spirited, I haven’t had my coffee yet, 1 star for you type reviews, with the reviewer not even having read the book (hey, that happens at agencies too); other reviews will be well thought out by passionate readers who have read past work by the author and didn’t like or liked the work for reasons which they point out in the review.
There are two broad assumptions in the BS world. One – Self publishing is OK for niche non-fiction (thanks for that, I’ll rush to print with my in-depth study of the impact of pet rocks upon the modern American Psyche); and Two; that self publishers are a lazy lot who have no idea about editing, cover design, and (here’s the cruncher) what sells. I’ve read enough blogs and seen enough evidence to know that the first assumption is simply BS, and the second is just plain rude.
Excluding my time (in my day job I’m charged out at US$3,000 a day), I’ve spent about USD6,000 on getting my book, TAG, to where it is. The cover and copy editing remain to be finished, and when they’re done I’ll have spent a total of about USD8,000 on the book. Then I’ll put it up for sale on Amazon and Smashwords. I consider every penny that I’ve invested to be money well spent. The vast proportion went on developmental editing; which for me was a crash course in writing. I don’t have the time to take an MFA, and whilst books about how to write, help, there is nothing like having a professional critique of your own work to advance.
My publishing goal is simple: put out a great product. That means an attractive cover, no typo’s, and a well written, hopefully, entertaining story. How hard is that? Dam hard, but it can be done. Will the market like the book? Who knows? But if they don’t, it won’t be because of errors in the text or a crappy cover, ergo laziness. Maybe the writing isn’t ready for prime-time, but I can get feedback on that from an audience. As opposed to trying to decipher months of silence interspersed with snippets of “I didn’t fall in love with it.”
What happens if it doesn’t sell? I’ll write another one. I’ve already started, quite some time ago, about a month after the first one. If that doesn’t sell? OK, I’ll write another one. My writing goal is to have what I write read by people, lots of them, and I’d like those people to pay for what I write. That is verification. Each time I write I get better. Each time I publish I’ll get better. Each time I read reviews and see feedback I’ll get better. The difference is that I’ll use the market to tell me what they like and what they don’t.
From my perspective the business model offered by BS, and the model offered by IP (note: the acronym for Indie Publishing is also commonly used for Intellectual Property; whereas the acronym of Big Six… well I’m sure you get it) boils down to one significant difference and one thing only. No, it isn’t money, (if it does sell) you stand to make much more with IP.
The only reason that you should consider going with BS is because, for now, they still have the reach. They can put your book on a shelf. All the rest you can do as well, if not better, than Trad. Why? Because BS is firing a whole bunch of talented people and those people are going to want to eat. The shingles will be hung and in some instances they’ll say, I know you can’t afford me so I’ll take a cut, let’s say 20% of that 70% you get from Amazon – deal? Deal.
People don’t buy books from publishers. They buy them from authors. In the past this meant that you had to get on a bookshelf and the bookshelf was a monopoly. Now a portion of that bookshelf is electronic. Your average, serious, Indie author knows their customers better than any of the BS. How many of the BS actually know who is behind the Bookscan numbers. How many email addresses, blogs and facebook pages are tucked away in their CRM databases? I suspect, given that one CEO of a BS recently claimed that the high cost of ebooks was justified due to the high cost of digital warehousing (I’m not making this up), that the answer is, “More champagne Harper, and do get the orchestra to play a Waltz.”
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This post is for Foreign Authors wishing to publish on Amazon; the complete lowdown on how to get a US TIN (Tax Identification Number) and file a W8-BEN.
Below is what it says on DTP Amazon:
2. I am a foreign resident in a country with a U.S. tax treaty and have provided a Form W8-BEN, but the W8-BEN does not provide a valid U.S. TIN. Will taxes be withheld at the applicable treaty rate?
NO. Taxes will be withheld at the 30% standard rate because a valid U.S. TIN on your form W8-BEN is a prerequisite to obtaining a reduced treaty withholding rate under applicable U.S. tax law.
O.K. That’s me. So I need a W8-BEN and a TIN right?
NO!
Read on it’s not much more complicated – you need w8-BEN, an ITIN and a W-7.
This guide will help you.
First check that your country of residence has a tax treaty with the US (IRS). You can get that information from the IRS web site. If your country doesn’t have a tax treaty then I suggest you sell through Amazon UK which doesn’t withhold taxes at source or Smashwords. But Amazon is the dominant distribution channel in the ebook space, and Amazon US is a lot bigger in terms of market than Amazon UK. So if your country does have a tax treaty and item 2 above applies to you then read on.
The first form you need is a W8-BEN. You can download it here. I highly recommend that you read the instructions for filling out the form, because in there you’ll find out you also need an ITIN. What does a form W8-BEN do?
To get an ITIN you need a Form W-7 (I swear I am not making this up). WTF is an ITIN! It’s an Individual Tax Identification number. What does an ITIN do?
Got it?
A list of Acceptance Agents and Authorized offices that can accept documents for ITIN are the IRS website.
In Summary
Now I’m going to drink a snifter of Cognac and smoke a large cigar. Bureaucrazy and Taxes have that effect on me…
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I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while.
It took me some time to put together all the bits and pieces that go into writing, and more importantly, publishing (read selling) a book. Everyone has their own taste and favorite applications. I’m just using what I find easiest, and to me, the most valuable.
So here’s the list:
Website and Blog WordPress – I have my own domain and then redirect everything to here. Their software isn’t perfect and occasionally I get a “gotcha” moment but mostly it does everything I need. One of things I like is that they provide new features on a fairly regular basis; for example they now have a recommend feature which provides images and other blog links based upon what you’re typing. Cost: free (you can upgrade to get more something or other).
Email – Thunderbird and Google. I set up email accounts at Google and then have Thunderbird download the mail from my Google accounts. Quick tip: set up different Google accounts for different things. Cost free.
Ebook Formatting – Jutoh – I love this software which took the pain out of a very painful exercise and with all due respect to those who want me to go and learn HTML – NO!!! And I’m not lazy, I work about 19 hours a day, excluding time for family. But HTML just does my head in. According to the people I have tested it with (readers at MobileReads – who are incredibly knowledgeable about all formats) it works fine. There’s a free version but it comes with a stamp saying this book was formatted by… so I bought it. Cost US$22-00
Writing – Pagefour – I only use MS Word and import/export between the two. If you have word stick with that. If all you own in the world is a notebook and you have no money at all (then writing as a career probably isn’t what you should be doing right now), then go to OpenOffice or Google Documents. Cost US$34.95
Outlining – XMind – “Mind mapping” software. Sounds fancy and I wish I had software that could really map out what was in my brain (be careful what you wish for Simon…), but this software at least lets me put ideas down, move the pieces around and create associations, sub-plots that kind of thing. Cost: free
Download Site – One of the drawbacks of WordPress – remember that “Gotcha” I told you about? Is that you cannot host epub files, even when you own the domain (at least I haven’t figured out how). I give away my books and short stories (I call it advertising), until they’re ready for prime-time at Amazon (cover complete, perfect no typo’s manuscript etc.) and will always give the PDF’s away. So that was a problem; for about five minutes, and Google Docs provided the answer. Quick tip: Upload your work to Google docs as a backup. There’s very little chance of you ever losing it.Cost free.
MobiPocket Reader – You need this to look at the format of the epubs you compile.
Research – Google Chrome browser – it beats all the others hands down, with its nice clean interface. Also Google Earth – nothing better for getting around a city short of being there.
Cover Design – No idea. I wouldn’t dream of destroying thousands of hours of my spent time with a crappy cover and that’s what I’d have. Unless you’re an expert don’t go there – you’re doing yourself and Indie Publishing a bad name.
Social Networking – Twitter and Facebook, and if you don’t know where to find them I suggest a pen and paper or an old Smith-Corona available from here.
Disclaimer: The only relationship I have with any of the companies listed above is that I am a grateful customer.
